On the last day of June the Stony Tunguska cut its way through the peaceful landscape as it had for millennia. Although hunting parties would occasionally pass through this remote land, the local wildlife lived mostly without the fear of man.

The sky had been clear when the light appeared in the sky, brilliant pink, rapidly inflating to an immense fireball. An explosive blast struck the earth like the fist of a vengeful God. Those trees which were not immediately blown over lit like candles in a spreading firestorm. Nothing directly below the blast survived for more than a tiny fraction of a second. A roiling cloud of unforgiving hellfire consumed all in its path. Almost every tree for ten miles was flattened.

Thirteen miles away, one of the only humans in the region, a lone hunter, was blown off his feet and nearly deafened by the sound of the mighty explosion. When he again looked up he saw that the new Sun which had been born over the forest had given way to a pillar of black smoke reaching all the way to Heaven. Later it rains black drops from the sky. He would be the first of many to tell the story of this day.

In Irkutsk, Moscow, Java and as far away as Washington, seismographs registered an earthquake. It is dutifully noted by geologists, but it will be years before they compare notes.

For many years mystery would surround this catastrophe. The men of wisdom would insist that it was the result of a meteor impact, but, no crater existed on the site and of course no piece of the hypothesized cosmic body would ever be found.